111: Guards

The next two days passed with slow progress. I could move a little, but I didn’t have full control. The pain felt like it had not gotten better at all; I was so worried that last night I checked with Milo twice to make sure.

Today I was in the back of the wagon, seated on the wooden bench, trying to move my legs properly while reading through Char’s book on runes. I didn’t have enough control in my hands and arms to do any practice yet — I made that mistake yesterday.

I was confident I could do the cold rune once I had my movement back to full. The question was: could I do it on the barrel? Would that count as a food item?

Then that brought up the question: if it works on the barrel, would I be able to enchant knives? Pans? I was full of questions, but Milo didn’t really have the answers for me when I asked.

Today I was alone in the wagon. I still had not seen Lily — maybe it was because I wasn’t cooking yet, but I thought for sure she’d at least show up to check. I was feeling worried.

Liane appeared next to me, causing me to jump as she appeared. “What ya doing?” She asked, a smirk plastered on her face.

Shrugging and putting the book to the side, “Just reading the runescribe notebook. I can’t do much else at the moment. Uh… did anything happen before Lily left the last time?”

“No, nothing. She was on the roof of the wagon as we left town. She stayed there for a few hours before she checked on you and vanished. I think Crisplet spoke with her? Or had some interaction with her.” She gestured to Crisplet in the brazier, who just let off a burst of embers.

I was curious about something, so I decided to check. “Crisplet, is Lily okay? Did she tell you she’ll be back?” I asked, and at the same time I reached out to the mana surrounding Crisplet. There was a burst of sparks, but as soon as the mana sensed me there, there was a rush of different emotions — happiness, excitement — then an overwhelming confidence.

“Thanks, Crisplet,” I said, nodding. “I was worried, that’s all.”

Liane chuckled a little. “I don’t think you need to be worried about Lily. I think she’s a lot stronger than we even know.”

There was a whistle from outside the wagon, and Liane vanished in a second, after whispering, “Stay low, stay safe.”

I wasn’t sure what was happening, but I was not about to question her — or poke my head out when told to stay low. It took only a couple of minutes before I heard more horses and what sounded like heavy armour.

“Greetings, travellers,” a gruff male voice sounded.

I heard what must have been Hari dismounting his own horse before responding. “Greetings, Sir. How may we assist you?”

“Come now, none of that formality — we’re in the middle of nowhere on the road. My name is Victor, of the Royal Guard. Did you come from Grey Rock by chance?” Victor asked.

“Yes, sir, we did. We’re just escorting this wagon, the merchant Micca Carlye and her two guards, to the capital. My name is Hari, and this is my adventure group, The Polite Company,” Hari answered, sounding very stiff and formal.

Crisplet moved out of the brazier, and I gestured for him to stay where he was, before whispering, “Crisplet, stay hidden for now.”

The conversation outside carried on.

“Were there any strange rumours down there? Perhaps any strange sightings?” Victor casually asked. I was curious how Hari was going to respond to this, because it’s not like they wouldn’t be able to take two steps into the town without being bombarded with all the details.

Hari responded in kind. “There was certainly a buzz of activity over something while we were there. We try to stay out of the affairs and political scene of the city — especially after our trouble on the road to Grey Rock,” Hari said, sounding sad?.

“Trouble on the road, you say? May I ask what occurred?”

Hari then recounted a very dramatised encounter with the army, even mentioning the execution of the colonel — minus the involvement of Lily — to Victor, who listened in silence.

“That’s regrettable. It’s certainly not how they should be behaving. And you mentioned that the guards of the merchant here were in fact two of the soldiers who were part of that group?” Victor asked before continuing, “Would you mind if I spoke with them for a moment?”

A moment later I heard two people dismount: one from the bench on the wagon where Darren was sitting and one from the horse outside. A moment later, Victor continued, asking several questions of them, including where they were collected from, what occurred, and what led up to George in particular being thrown into the wagon to die.

“Thank you, lads — that’s all. It seems we need to make a detour past Portland before we carry on to Grey Rock. I was hoping to skip it if possible, but this cannot be ignored. I thank you all for honesty today. Rest assured, we will get to the bottom of it, and the actions taken by those soldiers are unacceptable. For now, I will make my way there immediately. Have a great day and stay safe.” There was a mix of urgency and annoyance in Victor’s voice before I heard him remounting his horse.

A moment later, the sound of six or seven horses went past. I stayed low as instructed. I soon heard Hari, Darren, and George all getting back on their respective mounts before we started moving again. Nobody said anything, which was odd.

It was not long after that Liane reappeared again.

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“Everything alright?” I asked before she could say anything.

“Yeah, I think so. That was strange. We’ll probably talk more about this later, but you don’t see Royal Guards coming this far south without reason,” she responded, before leaning back and putting her feet up on the other side.

“Do you think it was because of us attacking the army? Is that why Hari mentioned it?”

Liane shook her head. “It’s most likely why Hari mentioned it — but the look of shock and anger on his face when he was told made it very clear he had not heard about it until now.”

“So what would cause the Royal Guards to come this far, then?” I asked, confused by it all.

“Can you think of nothing? Perhaps maybe a teenager walking around with a city-destroyer-level creature — at minimum. As a companion?” Liane smirked.

“Wait?! You think they are looking for me?” I asked, shocked.

“Trev, how long do you think it would have taken for word to spread about Boltron, or — even more so — your visit from a dragon in Forest’s Edge? There is no world where the royals have not heard word of you. Why they’d be looking for you I do not know, but knowing about you is a certainty by now,” she said.